Seven decades ago, tens of thousands of men stood at Loch Ewe fearful they might never again see the shores of Britain.

A remote inlet in the northwest Highlands of Scotland, it was the starting point for the Arctic Convoys on their treacherous journeys to the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

Described by Winston Churchill as the 'worst journey in the world', the heroes were risking their lives running a gauntlet of German warplanes and U-boats to keep the Red Army fighting on the Eastern Front.

Yesterday, 39 of the dwindling band of veterans returned to the loch's shores to receive medals rewarding their bravery from the Government.

Poignant: Arctic convoy veterans gathered at Loch Ewe for a memorial service where they laid wreaths

The proud former sailors were handed the Arctic Star after some 70 years of frustration.

The presentation was a victory for a campaign by the Daily Mail to get official recognition for the seaman who served their country in horrendous conditions.

They gathered at sun-drenched Loch Ewe for a service to remember their fallen colleagues, 3,000 of whom perished in the freezing waters between 1941 and 1945.

Thousands more have died before they could be officially honoured for their part in the convoys. Today, only a few hundred veterans are alive.

Only last Sunday Jock Dempster, a veteran who fought for decades to for an Arctic medal, died aged 85. He received his at a ceremony at Downing Street in March but passed away days before he could wear it in public for the first time

In a moving ceremony at Poolewe, a personal message of thanks from the Queen was read out to the seaman who were just teenagers when they embarked on their missions.

Poppy wreaths were laid at a memorial as RAF jets performed a flypast in long-awaited acknowledgment of their courage.

Proud: Bill Bannerman, 89, served on four Arctic Convoys in 1944

The Arctic Convoys were described by Churchill as the 'worst journey in the world'

Bert Glazebrook, 87, who sailed on two convoy missions on the destroyers HMS Serapis and HMS Walker, said: 'We got the medal for the ones who aren't here.

'Now we have got the medals I'm very pleased. Not just for me but for all my mates as well. It brings back good memories.

'We all went through hell. It was freezing cold, sleeping where you could when you have your duties to concentrate on, never knowing when it was our turn for a torpedo.

'But surrounded by your mates on a ship, we all just carried on.

'I got a little bit disillusioned while I was waiting for the medal, but today made up for it all.'

Ron Leslie, 87, a member of the Fleet Air Arm, served on board the aircraft carriers HMS Vindex, HMS Campania and HMS Nairana and made various trips in support of a number of Arctic convoys.

He said: 'Somebody one day said to me, "You are so brave going to Russia". I told them thank you, but there was more too it than that, we had to get back again.

'The enemies we had were not only German. There was the sea, the weather.'

Bob Brighton, 88, was returning to Loch Ewe for the first time since the end of the Second World War. He joined the corvettee HMS Bamborough Castle and completed six convoys - experiencing the horror of seeing allied vessels torpedoed.

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He said: 'It is the end of the past and the beginning of the future today. It is recognition of something at last.

'These are my friends, and there is a lot more that have been gone. I have come here for the little celebration of ourselves.'

Ivan Hall, 90, from Ludlow, Shropshire, was a merchant seaman on SS St Clears on one of the first convoys in 1941.

He wrote of his journey in a book entitled Christmas In Archangel as his ship was icebound in the Russian port for six months. It was there he bought a mandolin which he took to yesterday's ceremony.

He said: 'It is very strange being back here. It's hard to describe the memories that come back.

'But I am just amazed we are regarded so highly and people want to remember what we did. It is very humbling. We just went out there and did what we had to do.

Tragic: Jock Dempster died just days before he was due to wear his medal in public for the first time

'When we got to the ice sea it was frozen over. So the icebreakers dragged us towards Archangel but we were frozen in.

'We were in a very grim place, but one of the sailors found a shop which sold musical instruments. So we made a band. I learnt to play the Russian Mandolin while I was there and we played some songs.'I just found the instrument in my loft, it has been stored in there for about 70 years.'

Thousands of vessels massed in Loch Ewe before embarking on the treacherous 1,600-mile journey past the enemy-held shores of Norway, through the Barents Sea to the frozen wastes of Murmansk and Archangel.

The convoys carried four million tons of cargo including tanks, planes, fuel and food to help the Russia slow Germany's advances on the Eastern front.

More than 66,000 Royal Navy sailors and merchant seamen took part. In total, 87 merchant ships and 18 British warships were sunk.

But the Cold War meant it was politically difficult to give the survivors a medal for assisting the Soviet Union.

When the war ended those on the convoys were awarded the Atlantic Star - even though that was a separate campaign 800 miles away.

But last year Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the Arctic Star medals amid concerns many veterans would die before they were awarded. He admitted he was 'righting a wrong'.

Campaigners used yesterday's occasion to launch a £2.5million fundraising drive to build a museum and new community centre on the site of HMS Helicon, the Arctic Convoys base from 1941-1945.